Beginning in 1886, Richard W. Sears, an agent of a railway station in Minnesota, received a shipment of unwanted watches that he decided to buy and then sell for a profit. He began ordering more watches and soon opened the R.W Sears Watch Company in Minneapolis. The next year, Sears moved his company to Chicago and hired a man by the name of Alvah C. Roebuck. Together they created the mail-order firm which was a huge hit among farmers. The company was quickly expanding and new mail-order plants were going up across the states. In 1925, the first Sears retail store was opened. It was also a huge hit and there is now approximately 3900 stores in the US and Canada. Sears is the worlds 4th largest retailer in the US and Canada.